The Pineville Pilot News Briefs 04/14

Charlotte City Council voted Monday, April 7, to appoint Pineville-area state Sen. Daniel Clodfelter as mayor following the resignation of former mayor Patrick Cannon after he was arrested in March on federal corruption charges.

Clodfelter has long represented N.C. Senate District 37, which in addition to parts of south Charlotte covers the majority of Pineville homes. Clodfelter resigned from his senate seat Tuesday, April 8, before being sworn in as mayor.

The Mecklenburg County Democratic Executive Committee must now vote to nominate someone to be appointed to the seat, after which Gov. Pat McCrory would appoint the person to fill the remainder of Clodfelter’s term, which ends this year. Clodfelter was the only person to file to run for the District 37 seat, meaning a write-in candidate in the November 2014 election will likely win the seat.

Interested candidates must petition to be added as an official write-in candidate by June 27 in order to be added to the ballot.

Polk Historic Site volunteers receive recognition

Three volunteers with the James K. Polk Historic Site were recognized on March 24 at the North Carolina Museums Conference in New Bern for their role last year in advocating to keep the site open.

The site was threatened last budget season when Gov. Pat McCrory proposed slashing funding for several state sites. Polk would have been forced to close without the help of outside organizations and donations. Tabitha Warren, Sharon Van Kuren and Maya Osaka all received special awards of recognition at the conference for their work to make phone calls, write letters and talk with media to collect more than 2,500 petition signatures. The petition urged lawmakers to continue funding the site.

A recent fundraiser for the site also brought N.C. author Robert Morgan, best known for his book “Gap Greek,” to visit the town. Morgan visited Pineville at the Hilton Garden Inn on March 26 to discuss his book “Lions of the West: Heroes and Villains of the Westward Expansion.”

Pineville council approves agreement with Meck County

Pineville Town Council approved an agreement with Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation to construct three T-ball fields on the campus of Pineville Elementary School. The council voted 2-2, with Mayor Jack Edwards breaking the tie voting to move forward with the agreement. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, who currently owns the property, will give the land to Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation to manage. Pineville will lease the land from Mecklenburg Parks and Recreation for 40 to 50 years at $1 per year for the purposes of the town and county sharing the costs of constructing the baseball fields. The town would be responsible for annual maintenance, according to a town memo.

The cost of the total project, which would include three T-ball sized fields, concession and restroom facilities, a multi-use field for general purposes and a small playground area, has yet to be determined and would come in two phases. The initial phase, which will include basic construction of the fields – fencing and dugouts, bleachers, infrastructure for future lighting and some paving/asphalt work – comes in at $460,000. Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation officials have not yet said what they could contribute to that cost, leading Mayor Pro tem Melissa Rogers Davis and Councilwoman Debbie Fowler to vote against the agreement.

In the agreement, council also voted to approve an initial $300,000 to go toward phase I of the project.

The Pineville Community Athletic Association, who recently entered into partnership with the town, will primarily utilize the fields, though the fields also will be available for public use when not scheduled for PCAA.

The council also voted to approve several updates to the PCAA Charter. The biggest change to the by-laws states PCAA would be responsible for the maintenance of the fields under the condition that Pineville will give financial contribution to the PCAA. Financial contributions will be determined on an annual basis, according to a town
memo.

Pineville prepares for 2014-15 fiscal budget

Pineville staff and town council already have two budget workshops under their belt as they prepare a proposal for the 2014-15 fiscal year, but there’s still time to hear more about the budget before it goes before council for a vote in
June.

The next budget workshop will be held on Thursday, April 17, at 5 p.m. at the Pineville Police Department training room, 427 Main St. The meeting, which is open to the public, will feature proposed budgets and needs for the telephone, electric, parks and recreation and planning departments. Proposed budgets for the police, fire and public works departments were presented earlier this month. See story on page 1.

The full proposed budget is scheduled to be introduced to council at its May 13 regularly scheduled council meeting at The Hut, 413 Johnston Drive. The public hearing and vote will take place at the council’s June 10 meeting at The Hut. Both meetings will begin at 6:30 p.m.